Intellectualism amid Ethnocentrism: Mukhtar and the 4.5 Factor Mohamed A. Eno and Omar A. Eno I. Background The prolonged, two-year reconciliation conference held in Kenya and the resulting interim administration, implemented under the dominant tutelage of Ethiopia, are generally considered to have failed to live up to the expectations of the Somali people. The state structure was built on the foundation of a clan power segregation system known as 4.5 (four-point-five). This means the separation of the Somali people into four clans that are equal and, as such, pure Somali, against an amalga- mation of various clans and communities that are unequal to the first group and, hence, considered “impure” or less Somali. The lumping together of all the latter communities is regarded as equivalent only to a half of the share of a clan. In spite of the inherent segregation and marginalization, some schol- ars of Somali society, like historian Mohamed H. Mukhtar, believe that the apartheid-like 4.5 system is an “important accomplishment.” 1 In a book chapter titled “Somali Reconciliation Conferences: The Unbeaten Track,” Mukhtar chronicles this episode as one of various “success sto- ries” 2 that have emerged from the Sodere factional meeting of 1997. As the historian posits it, this could be called an achievement, particularly considering the fact that “for the first time Somali clans agreed about their relative size, power and territorial rights.” 3 Then the professor emphasizes that, “the conference also recognized another segment of the Somali society which included minority groups not identified with one of the above clans, i.e., the Banadiris and the Somali Bantus, just to 137